Sendfox is affordable, but its polish and featureset pales in comparison to Buttondown.

Sendfox is a tool by the folks at AppSumo that's focused mostly for existing customers. If you're looking for a barebones tool that allows you to segment your list and create some basic automations while staying within the AppSumo, Sendfox may be the tool for you.

However, it lacks a lot of the major features you may be looking for in a newsletter, like support for archives, scheduling, paid subscriptions, or advanced analytics.

Buttondown doesn't block its polished editor behind a $49 fee, because I think the most important part about building a newsletter is the writing process. If you're looking for a newsletter tool that can handle your workload while being easy to integrate with, Buttondown is the tool for you!

Kind words from happy writers

I’d also like to add that @buttondown is an absolute joy to use. Hats off, Justin!

Elliot Jay Stocks

Creative Director, Google Fonts

Shoutout to @buttondown and @jmduke for building an amazing bootstrapped product for newsletters, all while being very open to feedback and connecting directly with customers 🙏 Easily one of the most enjoyable product experience I've had.

Den

Head of Ecosystem, Netlify

if you are looking for "newsletter tool for hackers" i tentatively believe the answer is @buttondown full api, compose in markdown, good docs for setting up domain auth, simple subscribe form HTML that you style yourself (or not)

Brian David Hall

Author, Your Website Sucks

I really like @buttondown as a blogging platform, it has the simplicity of Substack but the corporate culture is less toxic.

Chad Loder

Extremism researcher

I worked with @buttondown and asked for some new payment support beyond the supporter single tier / pay-what-you-want options. Justin was great and built it in just a couple days.

Dan Hon

Author & consultant

I write nonfiction and I use @buttondown buttondown.email/Changeset - indie, GREAT personal customer support, very nice default styling, all the options I want including ones to protect my readers' privacy

Sumana Harihareswara

Open source maintainer

I use @buttondown because it does exactly what I need (manage subscribers and send markdown emails), not more and not less 👍 As a bonus it's made by an indie dev which I love!

Max Stober

Founder, GraphCDN

If you’re considering running an email newsletter, or if you already run one and are considering a change of provider, I highly recommend @buttondownemail. Super-easy app, very fair pricing with a generous free tier, and exemplary support. 💯

Peter Gasston

Technologist and speaker

imo @buttondown is easily one of the best-designed services i’ve used in recent years, if you have a substack you should really consider switching!

Kabir Goel

Engineer, Cal